1. Field of the Invention:
This invention relates to agricultural harvesting equipment in general, and more particularly to self-propelled machinery structured to harvest nuts and fruit directly off a tree. The improved double-sectioned harvester of this disclosure has the ability to shake the crop from a tree, catch the falling produce before it hits the ground and deliver the produce into awaiting trailers or fruit boxes transported by the harvester. My harvester is structured for rapidly harvesting nuts and fruits in very large orchards, being useful in combination with much larger than usual power-assisted, belly dump agricultural harvesting trailers of the type taught by Compton in U.S. Pat. No. 4,844,683 issued July 4, 1989. The tree trunk shaker of my harvester adapted for knocking produce out of the trees, is structured to function efficiently with large, solid trunks such as the type on pistachio and walnut trees, however it will also function efficiently with prunes, peaches and other smaller fruit and nut trees.
2. Description of the prior art:
A patent search was conducted at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to examine nut and fruit harvesters of the past art. The following U.S. Patents teach harvesting equipment related to the harvester taught in this disclosure.
A patent issued to W. L. Isom in Feb. 1948, U.S. Pat. No. 2,436,648, teaches a double section nut harvester. Each harvester section is a wheel supported conveyor bed adapted to be disposed on either side of the tree to catch nuts knocked from the tree. The nuts are moved by the conveyor beds into a carry-off conveyor system, one conveyor system on each of the sections where the nuts are carried and delivered into hauling trailers attached one to each wheeled section of the harvester. Each wheeled section of the harvester is adapted to be towed by a tractor. A tree shaker to remove the nuts from the tree is not provided as an integral part of the disclosed harvester and must be supplied as a separate piece of equipment.
A patent issued to J. L. Perry in Sept. of 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,608,292, teaches a "collection system for harvesting machines". The Perry disclosure teaches a harvester comprising two wheel-supported sections adapted to be disposed on each side of a tree for harvesting. Each harvester section has a platform to catch falling fruit shaken from the tree by a shaking apparatus attached to the harvester as an integral part thereof. The shaking apparatus is adapted to grasp the trunk of the tree near the ground below the fruit catching platform to shake the fruit from the tree. Each harvester section is propelled either by a tractor or an engine attached to the section. Conveyor means are supplied as a part of each section to move the fruit from the catching platform into fruit boxes.
A patent issued to C. R. Christianson in Oct. 1969, U.S. Pat. No. 3,473,310, teaches a harvesting apparatus similar to the above past art harvesters. The harvesting apparatus has a U-shaped frame for straddling a tree. Wheels are mounted on the frame, and a guide is connected to the frame for engaging the tree to direct the movement of the frame. A produce catcher and conveyor is mounted within the frame to carry away produce, and a deflectable cover is mounted on the produce catcher for receiving a portion of the tree and to deflect produce into the produce catcher. A produce shaker apparatus is mounted on the frame and is engageable with the tree to shake loose produce from the tree to be collected by the produce catcher and conveyor. Christianson has structured his device with a shaker apparatus adapted to shake individual
A patent issued to W. A. Gerrans in Nov. 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,621,643, teaches a "soft fruit harvester". The two sectioned harvester includes a fruit-catching draper conveyor with fruit-decelerating means thereover supported between two steerable wheel trucks, each of which carries a movable shaker apparatus, the fruit dislodged by the shaker and dropping onto the draper conveyor being movable away from the tree for subsequent conveyance and deposit in a fruit bin. Each of the section of the harvester has an engine, is self-propelled and steerable, and has a limb shaking apparatus adapted for shaking individual tree limbs one at a time.
A patent issued to J. W. Edgemond, Jr. in Nov. 1965, U.S. Pat. No. 3,218,790, teaches a self-propelled two section harvester having a limb shaker on each section adapted to shake individual tree limbs one at a time. The harvester has conveying means adapted to unload fruit from fruit catch platforms into awaiting fruit boxes.
A patent issued to P. R. Adrian in Aug. 1971, U.S. Pat. No. 3,596,455, teaches a single-unit fruit harvester including a pair of conveyors for disposing on either side of the trunk of a tree, sheet means downwardly sloping from the trunk of the tree toward the conveyors to feed fruit falling thereon toward the conveyors, and a sheet of two sheet portions to feed fruit falling thereon toward the conveyors. The sheet portions are retractable so that they may be folded up to allow backing away from a tree for driving to the next tree. The harvester has a tree trunk shaker placed beneath the sheet portions adapted for shaking the trunk of the tree to dislodge the fruit. The placement of the shaking device below the sheets appears as if the operator would not have a complete unobstructed view to allow quick alignment of the shaker heads against the tree trunks. The sheets used with this type of machine are utilized primarily because they can be folded and are relatively soft so as not to bruise fruit. This type of harvester which must be backed away from each tree after harvesting and then pulled forward to the next tree is relatively slow due to the amount of maneuvering required to align the harvester and shaker with each tree.
Nuts and fruits (produce) growing on trees are increasingly being harvested using mechanized harvesters employing only one or two persons to operate rather than large teams of agricultural workers. Mechanical harvesters are becoming more able to efficiently harvest a wider variety of produce at a lower cost compared to hand picking and mechanical harvesters of the past art. Labor costs are one of the largest single expenses for a farmer today, and efficient mechanical harvesting equipment is just one way for the farmer to cut his overall cost of production.
Weather conditions at the time the crops are ready for harvest are another factor radically effecting a farmer's profit margin and ultimately the cost of the food to the consumer. Many crops ripen in fall, a period when unpredictable and untimely rain can occur. Rain severely damages many crops, and often rain is more damaging to the crops the closer they are to being ready for harvest. Crops harvested at peak ripeness are the most desirable to the consumer and bring higher prices for the farmer, however the farmer is exposing himself to a greater risk of damage to his crops from weather the longer he waits for the crops to ripen to perfection. Thus the ability of a farmer to harvest his entire ripened crop quickly, and at a low cost is of the utmost importance to all of us.
Rain shortly before harvest can also leave the soil in the orchard muddy, leading to a traction problem for many past art harvesters. Even without rain, many orchards have loose or sandy soils, and are sometimes are planted on slopes. These dry, loose soils can also lead to traction problems for many harvesters, particularly when a harvester off-loads into fruit boxes which are taken off the machine when full, removing traction supplying weight from the wheels of the harvester.
It is very important that a mechanical harvester be able to harvest all the ripe crop without leaving any of the produce in the trees. Just one or two percent of the crop left in the trees of a large orchard can amount to a substantial sum of money lost by the farmer. Also, rotting produce left on trees after harvest often leads to tree damaging diseases and insect infestations.
As noted in several of the above past art disclosures and recognized by all farmers, it is very important not to damage a tree while harvesting. Trees take many years to grow and a substantial amount of money can be lost by the death of a tree caused by an improperly designed or operated mechanical harvester. Several of the past art patents discussed damage to tree trunks caused by trunk shakers adapted to grasp the trunk of a tree and vibrate it to knock the fruit therefrom. Complete tree harvesters of the past art having both integrally attached trunk style shakers and fruit catching platforms normally have the catching platforms placed fairly low to the ground in order to clear low hanging branches, and the tree trunk shaking devices placed below the catching platforms. Harvesting machines employing trunk shakers below the catching platform are adapted to grasp the trunk of the tree just slightly above the ground level.
Trees generally continue growing as long as they live. Consequently many orchards today consist of older trees with large trunks, sometimes as large as 15 to 24 inches in diameter. Large trunks are particularly prevalent with walnut and pistachio trees. A trunk shaker on harvesters of the type employing fruit catch platforms and off-load conveyors currently have a difficult time grasping a large tree trunk near the ground and applying sufficient vibration to strip all the fruit from the tree without either damaging the tree trunk or the root system of the tree. A tree trunk is significantly restrained from moving by the earth around the base of the tree, and consequently it requires a great amount of force and vibration to grasp a tree trunk adjacent the ground and to shake the tree adequately to remove all the fruit, particularly with large tree trunks. In view of this problem, several past art devices were designed with shaking apparatuses adapted to grasp individual limbs of the tree above the fruit catch platform and shake the limbs one at a time. Others used trunk style shakers which were either incapable of reaching vertically for use on large trees, or they placed the vertically raisable trunk shaker under the catch platform (sheets) making it difficult to quickly align the shaker heads with the tree trunk. It requires time to align a shaker head either on a tree trunk or on a limb. Each alignment of the shaker heads or clamps on a limb requires additional time. Grasping and shaking three or four limbs of a tree to remove the fruit will require three or four times the amount of time required to shake just one limb or tree trunk. This was the logic behind the development of the trunk shaker over the limb shaker, time saving. Trunk shakers can save a significant amount of time over a limb shaker. However, with larger tree trunks, trunk shakers are not always able to efficiently shake all the fruit from the tree without damaging the tree, and individual limb shakers are overly time consuming.
It is apparent from my experience in building and operating nut and fruit tree harvesting equipment, and from a reading of the past art disclosures involving tree harvesters that improvements in harvesting technology are needed, and improvements can equate to major amounts of money saved during harvesting. In the following specification, my improved nut and fruit harvester will be disclosed which is significantly faster and more thorough than past art harvesters, particularly when harvesting large mature trees of pistachios and walnuts in orchards.